Shelley Duncan would have probably been a nice addition to any number of teams last year, but he had the misfortune of being one of the few — the Yankees — that had absolutely no use for him. So he ended up sitting in Scranton last season, where he hit 30 homers.

Duncan hasn’t shown much in the majors — .219/.290/.411 in 163 plate appearances — but In nine minor league seasons, he’s a career .258/.345/.479 hitter with 170 home runs and 599 RBIs in 905 games. Last year his AAA OBP was .370. Smart pickup by Cleveland.

The Tribe also signed former Red and Nat Austin Kearns as, shockingly, the Nats didn’t want to exercise his $10 million option. Back in the day I took all kinds of heat for being the only blogger on the planet to defend the Reds for trading him to the Nats. Now who’s laughing?

Well, not me, because Gary Majewski sucked too, but I think it’s fair to say that the Reds got more out of Billy Bray and will get more out of Daryl Thompson than the Nats ever got out of Kearns and Lopez.

At the time of the trade, most rational Reds fans (there are a few) thought the problem was not in giving up Kearns and Lopez, but in getting so little in return. I can’t say there’s been any evidence that they were wrong.

Agreed that Lopez couldn’t/can’t play SS at a ML level, but what if the Reds had moved him to 2B and Phillips to SS? Wouldn’t that give them a huge upgrade offensively and be OK defensively? Have never seen Phillips play SS, though he has often. Just askin’